UPDATED AS OF NOV 27
First off, I understand that games will always have a bug or two after release, and that in this day and age the developers rely on the communities to find problems after release. However, there should be some threshold as to when this is acceptable and when it is not. It appears Black Ops 3 was released without a hint of testing with the zombies game mode (which is what I primarily play... or try to).
After waking up early all 'pumped up" to get ready for some zombies awesomeness on the night of release, my first half-hour showed nothing but disappointment. Time after time I tried to start my first match, but the matchmaking would not cooperate. From that time I've learned of the faults of the game, and the holes which weren't filled. It is amazing and truly surprising that the game I bought was the apparent release version. I never would have expected so many issues which can be immediately noticeable; they are socially and personally game-breaking. I'm sure there's more yet to inconvenience me, but from what I've seen and can remember it will be listed in point form below:
Serious Bugs:
- Most of the time I cannot invite anybody to my lobby. The invite apparently fails, yet the other players are still able to join my game manually. This is a huge problem.
- Unable to EVER successfully migrate a host, and the game ends when the host leaves as though there is no attempt to migrate.
- About 1 in 3 games there is a random player with a mic that I cannot hear talking. Their mic symbol is changing when they speak, other players can hear them speak, they can hear ME speak, but I cannot hear them. And no, they are not muted.
- Ever since I prestiged I have been unable to properly use the weapon kits. Whenever I adjust any weapon in the menu with a sight, attachment, paintjob or camo, it will also apply to every other weapon of any category - even if the attachments are still locked for a particular weapon (basically all weapons appear to have the same modifications). At least that's how it looks - what really happens in game is nothing. All weapons have no modifications with one exception; the last weapon I changed in the weapon kits will be the only modified weapon. Update: I have prestiged again and the problem has gone away - but I have not yet used the unlock token.
- The match start counter is invisible to everyone except the host. So we don't even know if the game is about to start or not. I'd prefer to know if I have 3 seconds or 30 if I'm paired up with people that could be complete jerks so I can leave in time or at least make some communication. This only started happening after the update.
- Certain games don't count on the leaderboards, even though the game ended normally. This happened on both zombie maps to me and my friends within the first few days of release. I don't know if it has been fixed. No, it was not the unranked mode. And yes, I know that the leaderboards shows the level reached in solo by default unless it is changed.
- At one point I was unable to start a solo game even after restarting the game entirely. I believe it was related to the weapon kit bug I mentioned above. It would crash as soon as I pressed x to skip the intro or when the intro ended - for both maps.
- Loading screen crashes and game start failures.
Other Bugs:
- On a few occasions when I purchased the bowie knife on The Giant solo, my character made no animation of obtaining the knife and I was unable to ADS, switch weapons, run or go prone. I was able to fix it by teleporting if I had enough points - otherwise I would of had to restart my game entirely.
- Searching for a match never returned any results 90% of the time, and left the player waiting on a screen guaranteed to never change. I noticed this was somewhat fixed, but still happens.
- Unable to see everybody's scores during the game half of the time.
- I tried to do the Giant easter-egg again which unlocks the extra perk - I was unable to get the last of the three green lights lit on the panel by the pack-a-punch even though I threw a monkey bomb in each teleporter (and teleported) twice for each one.
- I'm not sure if this is the game or my elite controller, but when I knife my character occasionally switches weapons as though I had pressed Y. This is easily repeatable and doesn't always happen. After seeing how many bugs remain in the game, I doubt it is my controller. Update: The problem was my controller.
- The traps in The Giant do not count towards the trap challenge.
- Unable to run if crouched and getting attacked.
- Occasionally a player's screen (and controller) won't stop vibrating after a ritual. This can be easily fixed by various actions.
- Lots of "new' tags just don`t go away, and sometimes have no particular object correlated to them.
- Shots fired directly at the sides of hell hounds (several times) with an upgraded sniper will do nothing. It is not lag and yes I was accurate. I don't know if this applies to all weapons as I have not tested it.
Complaints:
- No option to promote new lobby leader (I thought the next gen COD was suppose to add features not remove them).
- Glass is apparently non-penetrable and is entirely noticeable when defending the shops on Shadows of Evil.
- If a player on the opposite side of the map is downed, all zombies that were near that player instantly spawn by any other player, making an unexpected instant hoard of zombies. It's good that the zombies disappear and respawn, it adds difficultly... but when 20 appear in under a second - that's just ridiculous and honestly unfair for players.
- The leader-boards are hidden in a series of menus and aren't nearly as accessible as they once were.
- Is it just me or is the surround sound just terrible? Not only that, but zombies are quiet as a mouse for the first few seconds after they spawn. By the point you can hear them, they could have smacked you 3 times in the back. They don't even make foot noise (at least not that I can hear). For experienced zombie players, I'm sure it was a big surprise to all of us when we couldn't hear zombies coming from behind. If this was intentional I'm ok with it, but my play style will be changed forever.
- I didn't know zombies could jump two stories high. George Romero won't be happy. Ridiculous paths are added for the zombies where they aren't needed, yet there are numerous other places for zombies to travel which would seem to be less of an obstacle but they don't even go there. You would think there would be a strategy in going to a high building since zombies can't climb like spiders or ants on steroids. Treyarch wanted absolutely no spot to be a good holding position, so they added the most ridiculous routes for zombies to travel so that no place can be considered a strategy - even though the margwa and ammo depletion already take care of that. Having said that people can still run trains no problem, making their efforts to thwart actual strategy just retarded.
- Why can I not see a player's game profile from selecting their name in a menu (not a lobby)? So restricting.
- Terrible host selection - the hosts may have good connection at times, but the host connection stability is definitely not checked for.
- Recent players are only counted as players whom you have been in a game with, not a lobby. This makes it extremely difficult to invite somebody to your game after finding them in a lobby, because there is no record of their name anywhere. Additionally being unable to send invites really kills the social aspect of the game, which in essence is the glue which keeps it together.
- There once was a purpose to reboarding windows, but now it just doesn't matter. Our capability to control the zombies in even minute ways is mostly non-existent. The carpenter power-up is essentially useless. Please make boards tougher to rip off - after all they are just zombies with rotting flesh. They shouldn't be able to rip a nailed board out of a wall without struggle.
This is all the crap I personally experienced with the software you sold me. There are several million more playing the game too, and I can't imagine the mountain of problems people are facing right now. I'm usually a bit more polite with my words, but honestly Treyarch, you've got me fed-up. Fix all the bugs now and take my complaints into serious consideration for change.
